Sleeping Beauty
by HyperCaz
Summary: A bit of magic in the infirmary. BeckettTeyla
1. Sleeping Beauty

Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me except a $1000 debt...

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Sleeping Beauty

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When Dr Carson Beckett observed her prone body, he was reminded of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Her hair was loose around her shoulders, waves of shiny, glistening bronze despite her comatose state. Her face betrayed no pain, no conscious thought. She looked peaceful and untouched by the world. She seemed removed from time, lying in the deathly still sheets.

Meanwhile, the machine beside her beeped faithfully, informing the room of her steady heart rate. While every device in the infirmary declared her perfectly healthy, her eyes would not open and her lips would not smile.

Teyla had been this way since the last mission of her team. She'd taken a blast from a weapon in her stomach and had been carried through the Stargate, eyes open but unseeing. When she had arrived in the infirmary and laid down, her eyes had shut. Now they seemed sealed for eternity.

Carson often kept vigil by his more serious patients. He was admittedly closer to some than others but he felt his presence did something. Although, he was starting to doubt what effect he could possibly have on a coma patient.

He heard footsteps approach and Dr Biro's query. Carson rubbed his eyes wearily. He heard words, but couldn't distinguish what they meant. He chose to say without emotion, "There's been no change."

Another query. Dr Beckett wished Dr Biro would leave him alone. He was in no mood to answer questions he couldn't manage to hear. He tried to think what answer this one required. He settled for lying easily, "I'll stay just a wee bit longer."

This didn't entirely satisfy Dr Biro, but soon Carson was left in the peace that he wanted.

Outside the sky was dark and very few lights reflected off the water. The city slept and so did Teyla. Her breathing never hitched and never quickened. Carson watched her slack face and not for the first time wondered why he didn't get some rest. He trusted his staff enough to be there instead of himself for the waking of any disorientated patient.

It had been two days. He couldn't remember leaving her side at any time during those forty eight hours. Tiredness tickled his eyes and pulled his head towards his knees. Beckett rubbed his eyes again and shifted his chair forward, hoping the action would stir him from his drowsiness.

It did, thankfully.

"You can't seem to keep out of here," he told Teyla, remembering her last visit to the infirmary.

Teyla had borne the loss of her last remaining family member as a leader, but the shadow on her face since then had been testimony to her private mourning. Carson could almost hear her singing as he thought of the funeral. Her voice had struck chords within his soul and he would be very unlikely to forget that.

The dark night rolled on. Some time later to keep himself awake again, the doctor opened a window in the infirmary. Sweet ocean air filled the room, but there was no change in Teyla's silence.

The light shining down on her head made a ring of light on her hair, almost like a crown. She was a comatose princess, beautiful yet absent. Carson sat by her side again and rested an elbow on the table by her bed. Supporting his head with one hand, he watched her as he was now very accustomed to.

His thoughts drifted back to the fairy tale. Teyla certainly was sleeping and she had a stunning, almost blinding, beauty. An illogical part of his brain suggested that as in the fairy tale, there was a way of waking her up. Expelling a small snort at his expense, Beckett cast his eyes to the heart monitor.

It continued as it had been. When his eyes returned to his patient, he was prepared to continue watching. He rested one hand on the bed to stop himself from slumping forward from fatigue. Carson blinked away darkness from his vision.

"Where is your Prince Charming, love?" he joked quietly. "There's a good chance Colonel Sheppard has gone to bed."

John could charm the pants off anyone. But he hadn't been in the infirmary since the day before. There was only Dr Beckett here now. He said lightly, "I hope the draught isn't making you cold."

Instinctively, his hand on the bed lifted to her leg and he rubbed gently for a few moments. The sheets rustled briefly, then quietened as Carson let his hand rest on her knee. There was no reaction, but there was warmth beneath his fingers. He felt that he was invading her privacy yet he could not pull his hand away.

He felt drawn to her. Perhaps it was the light, suddenly, inexplicably making her skin glow. Gazing at her face, Carson was startled to feel those same chords in his soul struck again, but her lips were sealed. He realised that it was not her voice that had touched him. It was her.

Unsettled by the dizziness driving white sparks across his vision, he drew back his hand as though burnt. Dr Beckett stood and moved quickly away. He didn't dare look at her again. He was quite ready to head off to his quarters now. There was someone on duty in one of the isolation rooms.

But his feet never took him far enough. He turned back to sleeping Athosian, heart jumping into his throat. She could be in that state for a few more days yet. It would do her justice to wake up to a friendly face.

Maybe there was a way to wake her now. A way that neither medicine nor science could explain.

Carson walked towards his vacated chair, but he did not sit down again. He hovered uncertainly beside her. He said awkwardly, "It always works in fairy tales."

That was his excuse. There was no one to watch as he sat on the bed beside her and leaned one hand on the pillow beside her head. He slowly, hesitantly leaned over her. As his face neared hers, he could distinguish her rich, woody scent from the smells of chemicals and cleanliness of the infirmary.

Carson closed his eyes as he gently pressed his lips to Teyla's unmoving ones. If anyone had come in at that moment, they would have seen two statues, removed from time as a page in a story book.

A gust of wind through the open window blew apart the moment. Beckett opened his eyes and felt a shock run through him. Staring up at him were a pair of warm brown eyes belonging to a very much awake Teyla Emmagan.

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Continuation depends on the muse.


	2. All Things Found

Disclaimer: I own nothing, not even debt this time around. ;)

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All Things Found

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There was something missing, something out of place. Teyla Emmagan could not discover it, even in her meditations. It had been some days since she had been declared healthy enough to return to her quarters, though it would be another few days before anyone allowed her to return to active duty. Leaning against the railing on one of Atlantis' many balconies, she calmly shifted through her thoughts to ascertain exactly where this feeling was coming from.

Down below, the ocean's roar had abated to a disquiet, to the point where she thought that perhaps someone had clapped their hands over her ears. The water was missing its voice and Teyla was missing...something. Just something.

Perhaps it was a side effect of the coma. Among the Athosians, there were those who fell into irreconcilable sleep, only sometimes waking. But in her memories, none had described lacking any part of themselves. Teyla wondered if some of her soul was still asleep. She knew the Earth medicine would never say such a thing, but she couldn't help but wonder.

She had meditated and walked, thought and walked some more. And now she had no option but to return to Earth science and its explanations.

Teyla walked to the infirmary through empty corridors, where even her footfalls failed to beak the soundless halls.

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The infirmary was filled with soft noises – a distant murmur among staff, the steady hum of machines running hot with tests and the mutter of patients planning an escape. Teyla welcomed these sounds and paused at the doorway, breathing out one slow breath before crossing into this sanctuary.

Many of the doctors here she had to trust her life and body to. But there was only one she would trust with a matter of her mind and her soul.

She stood just outside his office, watching him lean over closer to the work on his desk, making the lab coat cinch tighter along his shoulders, which seemed broader and more built than she remembered. Although, more often she saw him in bulky off-world gear and less in what he felt comfortable.

"Doctor Beckett, I wish to speak with you," she spoke quietly, not wanting to startle him.

"Teyla," he said gruffly, keeping his back to her.

Surprised at his reluctance, though accepting it as part of possible exhaustion, Teyla linked her fingers in front of her briefly, before dropping her hands to her sides. She asked, "Are there any side effects of being in a coma that I should be aware of?"

Carson turned in the chair, concern flitting into his blue eyes. "Is something wrong, love?"

"I have been feeling...strange," Teyla explained. "It is unusual for me to feel as though I have misplaced anything, but there is something missing."

His expression became neutrally blank. If not for how he clenched the material of his pants of his knees, Teyla would think that he thought very little of her visit. She read his anxiety in the small lines deepening between his eyes and the restless movement of his feet. Finally, he said dismissively, "Perhaps you should talk to Dr Heightmeyer."

Teyla stared at him, again letting out a slow breath but this time to control her confusion and anger. Whenever she had come to talk to Carson, he had been warm and caring. This time he was treating her no differently than a new marine. It did make her angry, but she could not dwell on it. Perhaps there was something bothering him as well. And yet, it hurt.

"Very well," she said. "If you will not take the time to listen to a friend, I will find alternative means to be heard."

She caught the stricken look on his face out of the corner of her eye as she turned back to the door. As she left, Teyla thought she heard a soft apology leave his lips, but it may have only been a whisper from her own mind.

* * *

Teyla did not seek Dr Heightmeyer. She had no patience for talking herself into circles, though she did not realise how little patience she had until she sat on the floor of her quarters to meditate. There were many distractions. A candle blew itself out – she had to relight it. The chill of the darkening ocean's surface gushed in through a window – she shut it. Her limbs began to ache and she chided herself for failing to do something even Athosian children accomplished with ease.

"Breathe," she told herself.

Teyla breathed and tried to settle her mind, but on her closed eyelids she saw Carson's face. She should not have spoken to him that way. But he should not have ignored her.

Carson. What did she think of him? She was not sure, but she thought of him often. His kind, gentle nature. His warm hands on her skin, a caress, and then...the kiss.

She opened her eyes and frowned into the darkness. Never could she recall kissing Dr Beckett. Never had she considered it. And yet...Teyla breathed deeply, focusing more and more on her impressions of him. His lips had touched hers, she could feel it. His short behaviour with her made more sense. And she had heard that he and Lieutenant Cadman were merely friends now.

Teyla lifted her fingers to rest over her lips. She felt the curve of a smile.

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"_Carson_."

The doctor stopped in his tracks, hands full of bandages and other supplies. He moved to face her, concern and chagrin mixing on his face. Setting down his armful, Carson seemed to be trying to sound casual, though he did not meet her eyes when he said, "Yes, love? Are you feeling better?"

"I am," Teyla answered hesitantly. "I need to speak to you about when I woke up."

"I've got patients..."

She held up both hands. "Listen to me. I want to know why you kissed me."

"I was hoping you wouldn't remember that," he admitted ruefully.

"Answer me."

Carson shifted under her gaze, but did not turn away. His eyes lifted to hers and their depths surprised Teyla, drawing her closer to him. He murmured, "I...honestly don't know, Teyla."

"I think you do," Teyla said, now standing just two paces from him. "The nurses told me you were by my side all the hours I was asleep."

"I'm a doctor. I can worry about my patients, can't I...?"

She stepped closer and rested her hands on his shoulders, bowing her head. Slightly disconcerted, Carson returned the gesture. Teyla felt the secure weight of his hands, felt the warmth of his body so close to hers. Gazing into his eyes, she smiled. "I would like you to kiss me again."

As his kiss touched her and filled her with the indescribable warmth of _Carson_, she closed her eyes and leaned into his chest. This was where she belonged. She was complete. All things found.

Carson whispered against her lips, "I'm so glad you asked."

* * *

Between missions and emergencies, there were so few of those quiet moments. But this morning was one of those. With the dawn came streaks of pink and orange, darting across the sky on their journey into the opposite horizon. Two figures, one silhouette, were watching from a balcony still hidden in the fading shadow of night.

Teyla leaned back, tilting her head up to smile at her partner. Carson returned the smile, gently kissing her forehead before turning his attention to her lips.

As the air around them began to brighten, he pulled back.

"I'm going to tell you a story," he said. "A story about a lass that many call a Sleeping Beauty..."

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AN: Yes, it's been... a while. But today I found some scraps of dialogue that I'd written years ago and felt that I owed everyone the promised continuation. This is it, complete. Hopefully you liked it.


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